Religious Studies faculty and students present at the Southeast Regional American Academy of Religion meeting

The American Academy of Religion held its Southeast regional meeting March 1-3 at the College of Charleston with Elon faculty and students from Elon’s Department of Religious Studies offering presentations during the gathering.

Professor Rebecca Todd Peters presented “Beyond the Abortion Imaginary” in the Ethics section; Associate Professor Ariela Marcus-Sells presented “A New Vision” for Teaching Islam in the Pedagogy section; and Assistant Professor Andrew Monteith presented “Eugenics, Religion, and Biological Theories of Morality” in a joint History of Christianity/Religions in America section.

Five Elon students who are part of the Multifaith Scholars program at Elon presented papers from their undergraduate research including: Ashley Burnett whose paper, “Creation and Curation: The Narrative of Festival Culture” was mentored by Lecturer Kathleen Crosby in the English Department; Claire Przybocki whose paper “Catholic Nationalism and Muslim Migrants in Poland” was mentored by Professor Brian Pennington; Bethany Marzella whose paper “Between Conflict and Coexistance: Intra-Islamic Relations in Iraq” was mentored by Associate Professor Sandy Marshall in History and Geography; Jasper Serenity Myers whose paper “’Honestly, I wish I were dead’: On Death, Desire, Divine Inspiration, and Sappho’s Poetic Perversion of Eros” whose co-mentored by Professor Kristina Meinking in Classical Studies and Professor Lynn Huber in Religious Studies; and Daniel Scheff whose paper “Mirror, Mirror: Srivaishnava Women’s Reflections of Self Through a 9th Century Hindu Saint” was mentored by Professor Amy Allocco.

Jasper Serenity Myers, double-major in Religious Studies and Classical Studies received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Paper award for her paper on Sappho’s poetry which included original translations.